


The Volunteer

by catisacat



Category: Borderlands
Genre: F/F, Hospitalization, Limb loss, Quasi-Modernish AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-05-29 23:06:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6397675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catisacat/pseuds/catisacat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Athena suffers a more severe injury than the usual, landing her in a hospital on Elpis while she waits to receive a prosthetic.</p><p>A volunteer who comes to read to the children takes a particular interest in her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Man, I am writing blocked as hell but I Am Trying.
> 
> Figured maybe if I kept trying to write shorter things maybe it'd stop. Granted this one's going to be a few chapters but who knows.

The pain had long since subsided but Athena tried not to think about what was gone.

She wasn’t without visitors but they weren’t enough of a distraction. Not from that.

The fact her leg was missing was vying particularly hard for her attention right now as Timothy sat where it should be. He thought nothing of it, lightly swinging his own two perfectly functioning limbs as he told her about the remaining Vault Hunter’s efforts to find said vault. Were he anyone else she’d assume he was doing it to mock her.

“Nisha keeps asking when you’re coming back,” he says, idly imitating cracking a whip.

She smiled at bit at that. Frankly, she wanted nothing more than to get a gun in her hands and be running into battle with the rest of them again. She knew she would be. Eventually. But she wasn’t exactly a fan of being patient. Let alone being patient while being a patient. This hospital felt like it was bleeding her dry.

After a short pause she replied, “They want it to heal over before they try to attach the robotic prosthetic. I told them to just do it but they’re insisting otherwise. Said it would be more risky.”

Another pause.

“He’s asking about it too, isn’t he?” she asked.

“Honestly it’s less ‘asking’ and more ‘complaining.’ Especially since he’s paying for it,” Tim said as he tugged at his glove. It never ceased to amuse Athena that Jack had gotten the single most fidgety ball of nerves to imitate him.

Well maybe right now it wasn’t amusing her as she hissed through gritted teeth, looking away from the body double, “Nothing like a little indentured servitude.”

“Tell me about it,” he muttered, pointedly turning his head away from the mirror.

“Sorry…”

“It’s okay. You’re not the fucking asshole who knocked me out and made me your own personal Frankenstein. Hell, I’d rather be your body double. At least you’re only kinda an asshole,” he smirked as she jabbed her remaining foot into his side.

“Watch it, I only need one foot to kick your ass.”

“Gotta catch me first and right now I think I’d win,” he teased.

Before she could retort there was a commotion outside. Cheering children. Athena had to profess she wasn’t crazy about the dodgy, mixed age accommodations of an Elpissian Hospital. She was the only adult on this floor, surrounded by sick kids.

However, the cheery voice ringing out over the din of the youth was the one thing that made their invasion tolerable. Maybe more than tolerable.

Athena pretended to not notice but the smarmy grin of her associate said that he knew that she heard.

Timothy wasn’t taking feigned ignorance for an answer as he prattled on in a singsong voice, “That’s that volunteer lady, isn’t it? The blonde one. What’s her name again? Laney? The one you think is cuuute, right?”

“You can go now.”

He wasn’t deterred, “I get it, don’t want her to think I’m your boyfriend or something. Gross. You can tell her I’m your brother or something.”

“You look nothing like me.”

“Adoptive?”

“... Maybe.”

Noting the volunteer’s voice getting louder he hopped off her bed, bouncing the injured warrior slightly as he all but skipped out of the room. He yelled theatrically over his shoulder at her, “Okay, sis, see you next week. I’ll tell dad that he’s just gonna have to wait until you’re better to get you back on your feet.”

Athena shuddered in horrified disgust at the implication of ‘Daddy Jack’.

She forced herself to recover quickly to the placidly angered state she was accustomed to as a familiar scarred face popped into the room.

“Well, hey there you,” Janey chirped as she flounced into the room with an armful of books. She unceremoniously dumped all but one onto the little table by the door before approaching the bed. Athena forced herself not to smile as she heard the woman drag the chair closer to the bed, “So that’s your brother?”

The question had a ring of incredulity to it. It was obvious Athena was a Vault Hunter, despite the false anonymity of the hospital gown. The fact one of her visitors was a massive cyborg didn’t help her crappy cover. What the hell else would a guy like that be doing on Elpis?

Athena opted not to lie, “No. Ti… Jack is my boss.”

Okay so maybe I lied about her not lying. She’s still lying. Just choosing which of Timothy’s many, many lies to back up.

Should Janey and her ever become closer she’d explain that weird situation to her.

“Your boss comes to visit you in the hospital? Pretty hands on.”

“We’re… friends.”

Lies were quickly compounding. Shit.

It wasn’t that much of a concern to Janey though as she quickly dropped it, “You sure do get a lot of visitors. Your… fellow… associates?”

The delicate dance around the word was grating to Athena, even coming from the sunshiney woman.

“My fellow Vault Hunters, yes,” she stated, quickly nipping that in the bud.

They been doing this weird visitation since the gladiator had first been dragged into the hospital but this was the first time Janey had broached the subject of the weird visitors. She’d been particularly leery of the women though, Athena had noticed.

Janey rested her chin on the edge of the bed frame, “They must really care about you.”

Athena snorted despite herself, imaging Nisha and Wilhelm’s agitation at the implication that they could care about the injured woman. Oh, don’t get me wrong, they do, but they’d rather chew out their own tongues than admit it.

“Oh come on now, don’t be like that. I’m sure they do.”

“I’d pay to see you try to get them to admit it, though.”

Janey waved her free hand in the air as if to dispel that notion, “You Vault Hunters and your pride. You’d think bein’, you know, in constant danger together would make you acutely aware of the fact your friend could die at any moment.”

Athena decided to let Nisha retain her image as a heartless bitch, opting not to reveal the cowgirl’s panicked scramble to drag the de-limbed woman to cover. She towered over the small gladiator but the twiggy woman wasn’t built to drag deadweight across a battlefield. At least the gunslinger had some rudimentary first aid skills. Could have lost more than just her leg from the knee down.

“That’s… just how things are,” Athena answered carefully. It was hard to discuss Vault Hunter business with non-Vault Hunters. It was like a cat trying to explain to a dog why they dart for cover when company’s over.

Janey shook her head with a faltering smile as she finally breached a topic she’d danced even more delicately about, “Come on now, surely you must be… closer… to some than others.”

Athena caught her meaning immediately, “No. Not in that way, at least.”

Not that she had terribly many options in her group once you cut out the men. Just Aurelia and Nisha. Not that the attractive Nisha hadn’t been… distracting at times. But neither were someone Athena felt like coming out of her shell to.

The warrior easily noticed the smile lose its nervousness, becoming more confident as she continued to probe, “How about outside your little band of Hunters?”

“No, no girlfriend or wife or whatever.”

Athena’s mind started buzzing like an angry nest of Rathyds. She absolutely did not, in any shape or form, need to specify that she preferred women. Hell, she barely admitted it to herself most of the time.

Janey’s face brightened as Athena’s reddened.

“Maybe when you get out we can go out for dinner or something?”

Athena’s silence didn’t daunt her in the least. The gladiator really didn’t know what to make of an actual proposition, not to mention the fact she’d be expected to be out hunting vaults again as soon as she had that robot limb slapped on.

Maybe just this once she could let herself…

She abruptly shook her head, “Sorry. The second my prosthetic heals my boss wants me back out there.

Janey finally deflated, finally looking down to the book in her hands.

It was different than the pile she’d dropped on the table. They’d only asked her to read to the children but she’d made a personal decision to read to the misplaced warrior as well. She turned over the much heavier tome a few times before speaking.

“Do you… still want me to keep reading to you?”

“Yes.”

The blonde woman brightened again as she opened the book to where they’d left off. Granted, a weighty story about military espionage wasn’t exactly her cup of tea but as she watched the small smile sneak onto Athena’s face she considered it more than worth it.

Maybe she’d ask again once the robotic limb was attached.

Maybe she’d ask again after that too.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another Vault Hunter comes to tease Athena about her possible paramour.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, I am unable to hide my Athenisha trash self, pretend this teasing is 100% more platonic and this didn't temporarily veer into potential Athena/Janey/Nisha territory.

Screaming.

Athena had always hated the screams of psychos.

They now held a much more vivid place in her nightmares though.

The battlefield was scattered with Vault Hunters, she could see the boys in the distance. Too far to see, too loud to hear. Her own voice joined the raucous chorus of the Scavs.

Shredded flesh, splintered bone, splattered blood. Buzzaxe ripped from his hands as a sharp crack of a whip stung his wrist.

Being dragged, slowly, roughly, further from the boys. Purple skull shirt pressed against her face. Swearing, yelling her name, over and over.

And the pain, the pain shooting up her le-

The pain wasn’t in her leg.

As the chaotic blur became more vague she felt the pain escaping to her face, pins and needles growing through her cheek, becoming more and more intense.

Blue eyes sprung open as she realized someone was slapping her in the face. Repeatedly.

She grabbed the thin wrist, shooting the cowgirl an irritated glare, “Stop.”

“You are one hell of a heavy sleeper, you know that?” Nisha calmly replied, expertly twisting her wrist free of the gladiator’s iron grasp. She settled back on the bed and Athena noticed that the thin woman had crammed herself next to her, hip-to-hip. Legs crossed at the ankles, ending in filthy boots falling much further down on the bed than her own socked feet.

“I’m on pain meds. Of course I’m sleeping like a dead Skag.”

She only shrugged, “Well, the slaps shoudn’t’a hurt that much then, right?”

An icy glare was easily ignored as the woman adjusted her hat.

“You’re insufferable.”

“I came all this way to visit, I wasn’t leaving until you woke up,” she said with a cold laugh, digging a bony elbow into the gladiator’s side.

“You were worried.”

Athena’s sentence aggressively struck a nerve with pinpoint accuracy.

“No!” Nisha exclaimed, shoving her hard enough to bump harmlessly against the railguard, “Jack sent me. Because he wants to know when you’re going to get the new leg, got it?”

“You could have asked the doctor that,” she calmly replied, ghost of a smile creeping across her face, “You didn’t need to see me, let alone talk to me.”

“Doctors won’t tell a random visitor anything,” Nisha huffed, staring out the window and ignoring the fact that didn’t justify her sitting on the bed. She was practically curled up on the injured woman’s lap, like an overgrown housecat. The very kind she claimed to hate so much.

Athena ignored it as well, “Timothy told me you keep asking when I’m coming back.”

The ghost of a smile came back to life as she felt Nisha tense against her, “Tim’s a goddamn liar.”

“This is true, generally. But you and I both know he doesn’t lie to me.”

“He’s getting a whip handle shoved somewhere incredibly unpleasant.”

It was Athena’s turn to shove, “Don’t pick on him.”

Nisha’s eyes lit up as she remembered something else, something juicier, “Ooooo, shit. Speaking of ‘Tim needs to keep his stupid mouth shut’ he mentioned a certain perky little goody two-shoes you’ve got your eyes on?”

Blue eyes flicked quickly to the clock for the first time since rejoining the waking world. Fuck. Of course Nisha would show up just as Janey was scheduled. She was impeccable about screwing people over like that. A sixth sense. The being-a-dick sense.

As if on cue, said ‘perky little goody two-shoes’ popped into the doorway.

Nisha wasted no time tossing a lanky limb around Athena’s shoulders with a shit-eating grin and a far too casual, “Hey.”

Janey was frozen for a second. Generally the other Vault Hunters showed up at unusual hours. The fact she’d seen two in a week was weird, let alone one still sitting there and directly addressing her. Not to mention her dismay at how close these two seemed despite the agitated grimace twisting at her friend’s face.

“Uhm, hello there!” she finally chirped, awkwardly offloading the books except for the gritty wartime novel. She took a few cautious, tentative steps towards the bed. Something sinister seemed to be lurking behind the woman’s yellow eyes, like a hungry wolf.

“Hey Janey. This is Nisha. She was just leaving,” she said through gritted teeth as she roughly grabbed the back of her shirt, twisting as she tried to shove the cowgirl out of bed.

“Mmm, no, Nisha’s not going anywhere,” she said with a cruel smirk, squirming as her clothes were nearly wrenched off her, “I came to visit poor Athena here and I’m staying as long as I want to.”

She collapsed against the bed as the gladiator gave up the fight, wrapping thin limbs around the muscular arm to prevent any further retaliation. At least not in front of blondie. She didn’t terribly like having an audience to being manhandled, even if she liked the manhandling itself. Well, she supposed it was womanhandling in this case.

Janey chanced a laugh at the cowgirl’s antics. Watching the darkness fade from golden eyes, replaced with genuine, approving delight she figured she made the right choice.

“Go ahead, Sunshine, don’t let me stop ya,” she said with a wink, letting her head loll against the injured warrior’s shoulder. She couldn’t be sure at this angle but she had no doubt in her tiny, blackened heart that her associates face was bright red and wanted nothing more than for her to leave. But nah, gotta bring home the gossip to the other Vault Hunters.

Janey looked to Athena, “It’s fine?”

“Yeah. Go ahead.”

The blonde woman could tell she wasn’t happy with it but carefully cracked open the book anyways, picking up where they’d left off.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Athena is getting ready to be freed from the hospital but the other Vault Hunters are determined to be all up in her shit until she is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter! Glad to have this short lil three parter done. Need to do more Pre-Sequel group stuff, I love their potential dynamics so much.

Janey was trying not to laugh, largely as a favor to Athena who looked like an embarrassed child, forced into a school play by an overbearing set of stage parents. In this case, said stage parents were a massive cyborg, a hideously rich woman and an annoying little robot.

First told by Timothy and verified by Nisha, the curious gaggle of Vault Hunters had made their way over.

They claimed it was to see how Athena’s brand spanking new roboleg was working but she knew they didn’t really care. Well. Okay, Wilhelm was genuinely interested in it but he’s kind of a weird dude. Frankly, he’d almost seemed giddy about it. At least by his muted standards. It was already blatantly clear to her that the second she was out of this hospital she was going to end up with it propped up on his lap while he fiddled around with making it more combat-ready.

The other two? Aurelia was absolutely only here so she could gossip with Nisha and Timothy about it. Claptrap… well he was probably genuinely happy for her. She’d tolerate his existence.

All three were leering at her as the blonde talked though, “So, are they going to let you go soon?”

A loaded question, magnified by the stares of the other Hunters.

“They said about a week. They were impressed by how quickly I healed up so they’re gonna let me go early,” Athena carefully answered, refusing to look at the unwanted intruders.

“So… you’ll be gone then…” Janey nearly whispered, fiddling around with the novel in her hands, “You could borrow the books if you want? I mean, we’re… we’re not going to finish it overwise. I’d have to stay overnight and I’m pretty sure the hospital won’t let me.”

Aurelia spoke up from her perch, “Oh darling, you can certainly stay overnight OUTSIDE of the hospital though.”

She deftly dodged the pillow Athena chucked at her, letting it smap harmlessly into Claptrap’s face. He didn’t seem to care as she made some incomprehensible noise of happiness to match the baroness’s pointed laughter. Even Wilhelm looked mildly amused.

Athena jerked her head back to Janey after her fluffy assault on her associates. Janey’s face was turning an attractive shade of pink as she turned the book over in her hands, “You could borrow it… or, well, your friend is right. I could keep reading it to you. You’re all holed up in Concordia, right? Been meaning to expand my business out there.”

A bit embarrassed, the gladiator realized she knew very little of the perky girl outside the walls of this hospital, “What do you do?”

“Oh, I just run a little junk business, you know. Scrap.”

There was the quietest scoff imaginable from Aurelia’s direction. A cold glare from Athena made the rich woman’s face force itself back into a fake, pageant queen worthy smile.

Thankfully, Janey hadn’t seemed to have noticed as she continued to talk, “Probably’d help to get a more populated location, yeah? And then maybe you can come over when it’s slow for the both of us. Finish the book. Maybe start another one afterwards?”

God, Athena would kill for this to not have an audience.

Just as she thought that she noticed it was only about to get worse as she realized two more were lurking in the doorway. For a terrifying split second she got to play every one of the Vault Hunters’ least favorite game: Jack or Timothy?

By the way Nisha harshly batted away the massive yaoi hand passively resting on her shoulder Athena could safely assume the horse-faced man she was looking at was Timothy, not Jack.

Still, oh my god, she didn’t want this many people watching her.

“That… that sounds really nice, Janey,” Athena started before being cut short by a strangled noise of excitement coming from the doorway. By the way Tim ducked behind the cowgirl, nearly knocking her hat off she didn’t have to guess which one it came from.

Granted, Nisha probably hasn’t made that noise in her lifetime but still.

“Are we… always going to have this many chauffeurs?” Janey said, finally addressing the five elephants in the room.

“Yes!” Claptrap finally chirped, after agonizingly forcing himself to be quiet this whole time. There was a loud banging noise as Wilhelm toppled the bot.

Janey giggled, “No but seriously, maybe just a little privacy?”

The Vault Hunters stayed exactly where they were. Hell, Nisha planted her legs a little more firmly in response. However, their resolve melted quickly as the gladiator glared them all down. They slowly filtered out, Timothy last as he gave her a thumbs up before disappearing from the door frame.

“Are they always like tha-”

“Yes,” Athena said, cutting her off.

The blonde laughed with a wink, “Well, then, maybe our dates will have to be a little more sneaky.”

Her wide smile only glowed more as Athena scrunched up, looking at her with big, blue eyes full of embarrassment. Janey was a clever girl, she had a feeling she was going to need a crowbar and utmost forwardness and determination to crack this one open.

Not that Athena was complaining.

She turned her head and stared out the window, crossing her arms as she desperately tried to regain a few badass ranks, “I’ll have to slip away while we’re fighting Scavs if we’re going for stealth. They notice everything while we relax in Concordia. The only thing you need to know about Vault Hunters is they’re the most gossipy people on the planet. And when one knows something, they all know something.”

Athena felt a sudden weight on the side of her bed and as she turned her head she felt Janey plant a firm smooch right on her cheek.

The blonde lingered there for a second before pulling back just enough to speak, “Well maybe we can keep it secret for just a lit-”

A cacophony of hoots coming from the door immediately alerted the Elpissian woman to her immediately failure. Athena jerked up just in time to watch the smaller Vault Hunters turn tail and try to run, colliding into Wilhelm. He was unshaken by this as they bounced harmlessly off of him and collapsed into the floor in a pile.

Janey smiled widely, waving idly at them while Athena pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance. Of course they didn’t actually leave. Why would they.

Wilhelm gave a solemn thumbs up before calmly walking away, leaving the other three in a struggling pile on the ground.


End file.
